Writing · Chapter 5

Jotting things down during the day

During the day you do not write, you jot things down. A sentence at the bus stop, what Mia said at breakfast, a thought after a conversation. Spelling does not matter, nor does order. Every note gets its time, and in the evening you turn them into a page.

Writing a note

1. Tap into the field

   At the top of “Today” is the field “What is on your mind? Just jot it down.” On a phone you use the quick note, which works the same way.

2. Send it

   Enter or the round arrow on the right of the field sends the note. For a new line use Shift and Enter. A note can be up to 5,000 characters long.

3. Add a photo

   The camera on the left of the field attaches a photo to the next note, straight from the camera on a phone. If your Immich is connected, a small menu asks whether you want “Take or choose a photo” or “From Immich”.

Today

Changing, deleting and moving notes

Under “Noted today” you see your notes with their times. Tap one to change it where it stands. Enter finishes, Esc throws the change away. The bin beside it deletes the note.

The three dots next to a note open “More for this note”. There you find “Move to the day before” and, when the day is not today, “Move to the next day”. That helps when a note has landed on the wrong day. A photo on the note moves along with it. Notes cannot move into the future, and on a locked day everything stays where it is.

The question of the day

Below the field there is a small “Question of the day”, for days when nothing comes to mind. “Answer” opens a field, and your answer becomes a note with the question kept above it. “Another question” shows a different one for today. Otherwise the question stays the same all day, on every device.

Which questions come up is set under “My account”, “Writing” tab, card “Writing prompts”. There you switch whole groups on or off, “Gratitude” or “Looking back on Sunday” for instance, and add your own under “Your own questions”. “Show questions” switches them off altogether.

After midnight

If you write your first note between midnight and 4 am, nexdiary asks once, “Which day does this belong to?”. You choose “To yesterday” or “To today”, each with its weekday. The answer holds until 4 am on all your devices. After that a small line above the field shows where your notes are going, with a button to switch.

What counts as “today” for you follows the time zone of your device. When you travel, nexdiary comes along.

Catching up on days

If you jotted things down on a day but wrote no page, nothing is lost. For the last 60 days a quiet card on “Today” and in the journal says something like “3 days with notes and no page”. “Show” opens it, and “Write it up” takes you to the day so you can write the page after all.

Notes always stay, by the way, even long after a page has been made from them. You find them with the day under “Your notes from that day”.